1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveyor system having a conveyor for conveying a sheet made of a magnetic material which is supplied from an apparatus in a preceding process, to a stacker while attracting the sheet to a belt with a plurality of magnets, and dropping the sheet onto the stacker, and a method of setting operation of such a conveyor system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a technology for conveying a magnetic workpiece such as a steel sheet while magnetically attracting the magnetic workpiece with magnets that are combined with a conveyor (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-295233). Specifically, a number of electromagnets are used as the magnets, and some of the electromagnets are energized to hold and convey the magnetic workpiece. When the magnetic workpiece reaches a stacking area, those electromagnets are de-energized to eliminate attractive forces, dropping the magnetic workpiece onto magnetic workpieces that have been stacked in the stacking area.
Sheets such as steel sheets are conveyed by a conveyor that is combined with electromagnets. If sheets of many different sizes are to be conveyed, then complex calculations are required to set timings to energize and de-energize the electromagnets and intervals at which the sheets are to be conveyed. Specifically, for operating the conveyor, the operator of the conveyor needs to perform complex calculations to set a number of parameters and enter the parameters into a controller of the conveyor. Since such a process is time-consuming, it poses an undue burden on the operator.
To avoid the complex calculations, it is customary for the operator to enter operational data based on the experience and correct the operational data on a trial-and-error basis in several trial runs of the conveyor system. However, this process requires the operator to have a plenty of experience, and may not necessarily be effective to produce appropriate operational settings.